What You Need to Know About Updating to iOS6

If you’re thinking about updating your iPhone/iPad to iOS6, but aren’t sure what to expect – below you’ll find a short and sweet guide to feeling out your bright and shiny new Apple operating system. That goes for all you users that updated, but haven’t played around with it yet too.

Siri received an upgrade:

Siri can launch apps now.

Siri can tweet for you.

Automotive companies are working on building eyes-free Siri features in their cars in the next year so drivers can gleefully chat up Siri to make calls, send texts and emails, etc.

Siri can now connect to Yelp and OpenTable to help you find a restaurant.

And just in case you sports fans feel left out – Siri can now randomly answer questions about major league sports including game scores and player stats.

The sweet new Mail app:

The ‘pull-to-refresh’ feature is slick and makes loading new received mail much more pleasant.

The VIP inbox feature is incredibly cool. It allows you to customize Mail notifications by selecting which contacts’ emails will send you push notifications to eliminate distracting and unimportant alerts.

It’s also especially great that you can view attached files within the Mail app now. No more viewing in the Photos app. Hallelujah, what a time saver.

Facebook is everywhere:

Facebook is built into every major app like Safari, Photos, and Maps – so sharing to your wall is easier than ever. Facebook is also integrated into your Contacts and Calendars so Facebook birthdays, for instance, show up in your iCal.

Goodbye Google Maps:

Apple created a new Maps app from the ground up, featuring a lot of neat functions.

Local search is built right into the maps (just like Google Maps).

The real time traffic feature is awesome and displays traffic jams, accidents, and construction delays and can re-route you to shed time on your journey.

It has Tom-Tom-like turn-by-turn navigation.

3D maps with 3D models of cities around the world! It’s called Flyover, and it makes you feel like Superman.

Siri is built-in so you can direct your searches via speech.

While this new app has a lot of bells and whistles, users might find themselves wishing they had Google Maps back. There’s just something about it that I miss.

Other amazing features include:

Do Not Disturb mode is the best. Set your iPhone to this mode and you won’t receive annoying notifications during a big meeting or when you’re sleeping. You have complete control of it too, with the ability to make exceptions for certain important people in your life who are allowed to bother you.

About the Author

Catherine Faas is a tech journalist, interactive producer, and content curator for various blogs and brands including Holy Kaw! and GeekBeat.TV. When she's not deep web diving she's busy covering geeky events around the globe. Catherine has a full-blown addiction to technology, and she accepts that. Oh, and she'll also beat you at a video game of your choice.